Thanks to the Thanksgiving holiday, we did not get a full week of our DC CW superheroes. Instead of getting a full house, we are treated to new episodes of Supergirl and The Flash only. Everyone was probably traveling on Wednesday for a new episode of Arrow and probably too stuffed to watch Legends of Tomorrow anyway. However, both episodes of Supergirl and The Flash were great additions this week. On Supergirl, we got to see the Cyborg Superman and a Martain battle. On The Flash, we got to see Savitar (the god of motion), Killer Frost and the final reveal of who Doctor Alchemy is.
Let’s take a look at each of these shows and what happened this week.
Supergirl: “The Darkest Place"
Last week on Supergirl, the evil organization Project Cadmus kidnapped Mon-El (just when he was trying to do the right thing). As a result, he is now in their clutches. It will be up to Supergirl to come and save him, and that’s just what Lillian Luthor wants anyway. After realizing that he’s been MIA, Supergirl figures out that he’s been kidnapped by Project Cadmus and goes in for the rescue. As soon as she arrives to rescue him, he’s greeted by a familiar face, Hank Henshaw. Not Martian Manhunter Hank Henshaw, the real Hank Henshaw and he still hates aliens! To make matters worse, he can hold his own in a fight against Supergirl. The reason he’s such a powerhouse in a major DC Easter Egg, Hank Henshaw has been “upgraded” and is now Cyborg Superman. In of the comics, Henshaw was one of the two versions of Cyborg Superman. In the comics, he was a scientist who blamed Superman for the death of his crew (and wife) by accident and went insane with revenge. This time, he’s just the same alien-hating DEO agent who should have died after fighting Jeremiah Danvers. A little bit of origin story tweaking, but the end result is the same.
After being overpowered by Henshaw, Supergirl is placed in a prison cell right next to Mon-El. Unable to use her powers to break out, as the cell is made of Thanagarian steel (another cool DC Easter Egg), Lillian Luthor threatens Mon-El by having him shot. He is not as invulnerable as she is, and she agrees to do what she says in order to save his life. Supergirl agrees to deplete her heat vision and without the sun to replenish her powers, she’s left powerless. Luthor then puts Supergirl on an operating table where she has her blood drained. If I’m a betting man, she’s trying to clone Kryptonian DNA so that they can create Superboy. Comic book fans know that Superboy was created by Project Cadmus as a means of recreating Superman by making a clone of him. So perhaps, they will create a new “Supergirl” clone that will be under their control.
Lucky for Supergirl and Mon-El, they have a secret savior on the base. Her presumed-dead father Jeremiah Danvers is on the base and ends up helping rescue her and Mon-El. He opts to stay behind so that they can escape. It’s too brief a reunion (and cameo by Dean Cain) for the two, but it confirms that he is still alive, so you know a rescue for him is sure to come.
Meanwhile, James is also having some issues being Guardian. Although everyone is accepting of a vigilante alien helping save the day, the jury’s still out on a regular human vigilante. To make matters worse, there’s another vigilante also in National City, and this one is more “Punisher” than “Daredevil” if you get my drift. After the murders a criminal that Guardian safely subdued, everyone blames Guardian and he’s now public enemy #1. He is forced to do some investigating on his own to find out who the mysterious vigilante is and take him down. The Alex and Maggie arrive just in time and realize that he’s not so bad and give him time to escape. There’s also a cool Easter Egg to Batman (yes Batman exists in the DC CW Universe).
"Our" Hank Henshaw is also dealing with the aftermath of his blood transfusion by Miss Martian. We know she’s not a Green Martian, but he doesn’t and he starts having hallucinations as a result. After ordering a retest of his blood, he finds out that he was given White Martian blood and seeks out Miss Martian. Their confrontation is angry and he and she battle all over town. In ends with her locked in a DEO cell where he angrily asks her why. She apologizes and did it only to help save him. There is a down side to the blood transfusion, though. Miss Martian’s blood was weaponized to turn Green Martians into White Martians. As he walks away his hand has changed to the hand of a White Martian.
The episode ends with Cyborg Superman heading up to the Fortress of Solitude where he uses some of Kara’s blood to activate “Project Medusa.” What is that? Who knows? But it’s probably not good.
The Flash: “Killer Frost”
Say what you want about director Kevin Smith and his recent movies (they do suck), the man can direct an episode of The Flash! So far he’s 2-for-2 working behind the camera for the CW show. Last season he directed “The Runaway Dinosaur” which was arguably one of the best episodes of last season. This week on The Flash he juggles a lot in “Killer Frost” and completely nails it!
The episode picks off right at the end of last week’s episode and Barry in confronted by Savitar. Let’s keep it real, Barry should no longer start each episode saying “My name is Barry Allen, and I’m the fastest man alive.” Savitar is so fast that he cannot be seen by the naked eye. Even Barry couldn’t keep up with him. He easily beats Barry with ease after beating him up all over town. Lucky for Barry, Cisco, and Caitlin show up and help save the day. Cisco uses his “vibe” powers to open a portal to get them across town and Caitlin uses her “Killer Frost” powers to freeze the new supervillain. The big problem is that Caitlin is fearful of user her powers knowing how evil her Earth-2 counterpart was. Her using her powers to save Barry might just lead her on the downward spiral to be the same bad girl as her doppelganger.Meanwhile, Joe is worried about Wally. Wally agreed to be used as bait to lure out Doctor Alchemy last week and he ended up touching the device that activated his powers. Wally was left in some sort of cocoon that is turning him into a metahuman. Since all of Team Flash are stumped as to what to do scientifically, Joe figures out that this will require a detective’s work. He heads to the station to interrogate one of Doctor Alchemy’s underlings. The problem is, so does Caitlin. She lies to Joe saying that Wally is OK, so he heads back to STAR Labs, and she proceeds to interrogate the poor criminal using her frost powers. Caitlin is so desperate to get rid of these powers that she starts using her powers for her own nefarious purposes. After finding a lead, she tries to escape, only to be caught by Barry’s partner Julian who she takes as a hostage.
This leads Barry to try and find her and talk her off the ledge. Harry (ever the muse) tells Cisco to use the same algorithm used to find out where Captain Cold is to figure out where Killer Frost is. After Barry catches up to her, he tries to reason with her. Barry even knocks out Julian so that she and Barry can talk one on one. Unfortunately for Barry, at this point, she’s a lost cause and stabs him in the leg with an ice crystal. Lucky for Barry, Cisco also comes to save the day and the same fight that he vibed comes true.
Killer Frost operates in a very Hannibal Lecter-ish manner and tells Barry (and Cisco overhears) that because of him creating Flashpoint, Cisco’s brother is dead. This causes a little bit of a rift between Barry and Cisco, but the two agree to try and move forward for the time being to help Caitlin. Caitlin uses her “ice kiss” on Barry which incapacitates him, and Cisco faces Caitlin and eventually gains the upper hand. When they take her back to STAR labs into a holding cell, she really gets all Hannibal Lecter-ish and taunts them through a cell. They have no choice but to keep her locked up, until a problem arises that only Caitlin Snow (not Killer Frost) can solve.Joe forces Wally out of his cocoon and he’s basically not used to how the Speed Force works. Barry rolls the dice hoping that Caitlin is somewhere in there and Killer Frost hasn’t completely overcome her and lets her out of her cell. Caitlin snaps out of it and creates a contraption to help Wally get adjusted to being a speedster and all is well.
There’s only one problem, though. Julian has seen Caitlin’s face and knows that she is an “evil” metahuman. Barry makes a plea with him not to identify her to the police saying he’s deep down a good person who just lost her way for a little. Julian agrees to lie for Barry, under the condition that Barry quits his job as a forensic scientist for the police. Barry makes the sacrifice for his friend. Let’s hope that she doesn’t become Killer Frost and make his sacrifice pointless. The episode ends with Julian hearing Savitar’s voice in his head telling him to be his “prophet” once again, revealing what we knew all along. Julian is Doctor Alchemy!
Next week looks to be the best week the DC CW has as we will finally get the “Invasion” four-night crossover for each of the shows.
